Chapter 217: Stubbornly Blocking Back and Forth

Liu Mu was a bit puzzled, and the object of her puzzlement was Feng Rui Ya, a young nun who was willing to distribute all her supplies to others; she was very beautiful, very charming, and also very mysterious.

At first, Liu Mu hadn't paid much attention to this nun, but just a moment ago, when she was escorting the last batch of Survivors into the Base, she was called over by Feng Rui Ya.

Facing Liu Mu's Mecha, she performed an extremely complex and intricate gesture; it started with a common sign of the cross, and at the end, her left hand was splayed and stretched high toward the sky, while her right thumb pressed against the center of her brow, with the remaining four fingers spread in an extreme and awkward posture that looked quite uncomfortable.

"May the gods grant you blessings, may I use my own body to bear all your suffering, may you not be wounded, not perish, not be extinguished, and return in peace!"

This prayer, which bordered on a roar, coming from a woman who usually spoke so softly, left Liu Mu stunned for a full ten seconds.

"Oh," Liu Mu looked at the hand Feng Rui Ya was stretching toward her with all her might after finishing the ritual, and used the Mecha's large hand to gently touch hers, feeling a bit awkward, "Thanks, huh."

As a Level 3 Believer of the Thirteen Holy Nuns Association, Liu Mu had heard dozens of professional sermons by Haide Kanpu, so logically, she should have known the methods of prayer by heart.

Yet, this type of prayer by Feng Rui Ya, which resembled sacrificing oneself to bear the suffering of others, was something she had never seen before. And this way of wishing by sacrificing oneself to bear the pain others were about to encounter—regardless of whether it was effective or not—was something she had never even heard of.

"Hiss... could it be that they don't worship the same god?"

【This situation also exists; among the many human beliefs, the method of sacrificing the current self to exchange for a good outcome for the 'future self' or 'others' is very common. Humans possess very complex and difficult-to-understand emotional needs; I still cannot understand the value of this kind of prayer.】

Heitao A displayed the analyzed images in Liu Mu's brain, explaining the meaning of the gestures used in Feng Rui Ya's prayer one by one from the existing human data.

Sacrificing the self, offering up one's own flesh and soul, granting blessings to others... and so on, basically matched the meaning of the words she had spoken.

"Why did she do that?" Liu Mu followed the planned route toward the seaside, heading for a high point where she could see the situation on the sea surface as much as possible before dark, "I have no ties to her, and logically she shouldn't know my identity either. Could it be that she saw my noble inner self through my beautiful skin?"

【... Obtaining Military Base authorization, weapon system activating, activation complete. The current number of Survivors in the Base is:...】

Heitao A was uninterested in Liu Mu's nobility and reported the progress of the Base's preparations in a very mechanical, broadcast-like tone.

"You brat, you tell me," Liu Mu's brain automatically filtered out the system's voice as she ran along the coastal road, kicking up a cloud of dust, but this was all done by the Mecha's operation, and she herself didn't need to make any movements; in short, she was very idle.

"Could it be that she has taken a fancy to me? (*? ▽? *) A pretty young lady, thinking about how soft she is, that's also quite nice."

【She might just be relatively kind,】 Heitao A interrupted its host's imagination in the midst of its busy work, 【She is kind to everyone; even that person you slapped to death, she still saved him some rations.】

"Kind to a fault," the Mecha clung to the coastal rock wall like a gecko, with countless tiny armor plates standing up on its four limbs, ensuring fast and stable climbing; the wind and snow blowing from the sea and the ice condensed on the rock wall could not affect her speed.

"Maybe she really wants to live as a saint; respect."

She expressed her attitude indifferently, not believing that Feng Rui Ya's parting prayer could bring her any benefits.

【According to the law of 'kill the saint first in troubled times', are you going to kill her then?】

"How did that become a law... forget it, no grudges, let's respect the fate of others."

The small talk basically ended here, and Liu Mu stood on the top of the cliff; in fact, this wasn't really a cliff, but a stone mountain between Haiyang and the sea.

The stone mountain was steep on all four sides, and stairs to the top had been built when it was being developed for tourism, but just like the other facilities on the mountain, they had been destroyed in the Burning and the Black Rain. There were still some traces of the steps on the stone, but the railings and handrails had long since vanished without a trace.

In this situation, it was no different from climbing a cliff with bare hands.

Finally, Liu Mu stood on the peak of no more than ten square meters; the Mecha blew a gust of wind from its legs, clearing all the accumulated snow on the stone to reduce the risk of sliding down the mountain.

Lead-colored clouds pressed down on the city, and wind and snow danced, but because the air temperature was low enough, there was no fog on the sea, and the humidity was much lower than when it rained Black Rain, so the visibility was actually better.

Heitao A had already linked the Mecha, the Military Base in the mountains, and the Haiyang Base, transmitting the view directly back to the command room's large screen at the Base.

"How long has it been, our command room is finally in use again; this image is still so clear, I really miss the military exercises before the disaster."

Zhang Lin shed old tears in excitement, and even disregarding being scolded, he tugged at Bai Chonghuan's sleeve, "Division Commander, look, you can even see the flags on the enemy fleet clearly; this is even without connecting to radar, one can..."

"Are you able to visually estimate coordinates now?" Bai Chonghuan pulled his sleeve back in disgust, not wanting to pay attention to this deputy who, in his view, had poor abilities in everything except loyalty, and gave orders to the others, "Determine the orientation, start radar detection, calculate precise strike coordinates, prepare weapons."

In less than half a minute, people in the room stood up one after another to report.

"Radar detection complete!"

"Coordinate map complete!"

"Weapons ready, can carry out strikes at any time!"

"Hmm," Bai Chonghuan slowly raised his hand, looking at those well-equipped warships, his red eyes calm and unruffled.

Just as his hand was falling to give the strike order, the image shook, "Prepare... wait a moment!"

"Quick, look, is Chief Liu being attacked?"

The screen that occupied the entire wall shook violently, and in the lens, one could still see splashing gravel and dust; a few seconds later, the image cut to a huge face.

It was Liu Mu, and she was saying something urgently; her voice only came through a few seconds later, "Their main force is landing... I've been discovered, Old Bai, get ready for land combat... you can strike the ones on the sea first..."

The signal was interfered with by explosions, and the words that followed could not be heard clearly; after Liu Mu's face flickered for a while, it cut back to several still photos, on which she had marked the landing positions of the enemy she had seen.

Bai Chonghuan waved his hand down, "First round of strikes!"

"But..." Zhang Lin wanted to say something, but immediately closed his mouth; when in combat, one must never interfere with the commander's judgment, let alone question their decisions.

Otherwise, he would likely be sent to the Military Court by the Division Commander as well.

Thinking of that Brigade Commander who hadn't been locked up for long, Zhang Lin shivered; it was a good thing he hadn't been too excited and said everything.

"Three rounds of basic strikes; after three rounds, observe the situation of the targets and continue striking."

Bai Chonghuan suddenly said this to Zhang Lin, "Heitao A will give you advice; follow what it says to issue orders. I will command remotely at all times; report the battle situation promptly."

Seeing him about to leave, this time Zhang Lin didn't hesitate and asked, "Division Commander, are you going to the front line again?"

The word 'again' was used very cleverly, successfully making Bai Chonghuan's face darken, "I am going to organize land combat; I cannot let them get close to the Base."

A large-scale landing only meant one thing: after destroying most of the city's repaired Communication Equipment, the enemy had come ashore while they were 'blind'; the so-called large-scale also meant that the enemy was carrying sufficient and complete weapons.

Bai Chonghuan, who had been familiar with military equipment since he was six, naturally understood at this moment that the enemy also had heavy weapons; once they approached within two or three kilometers of the Base's core, they could open fire.

"But, but," just like the countless times in the past, Zhang Lin was destined not to be able to stop his formidable Division Commander this time, and felt deep worry for this man who was like a wolf king, "I'm afraid only when he finds a wife will he not take such risks anymore..."

This remark was met with head-shaking denials from everyone around; everyone expressed that the probability of success for this 'I'm afraid' was not high—that was Division Commander Bai who loved war! The possibility of him changing for a woman was really too small; it would be better to wish he didn't delay the young lady.

"Please equip the Communication Equipment; the system has already established communication for all parts, and Heitao A will assist you in combat." This time, Heitao A appeared as a virtual image through the command room's screen, interrupting everyone's gossip about their superior.

Like a real human, he wore a smile and stood on one side of the command position, successfully giving Zhang Lin a fright, "When did you come?"

"I have always been here," as Heitao A stretched out his finger like a real human, new data kept appearing on the screen, and he provided effective suggestions in a very short time.

"Second strike preparing, please confirm the command."

... In the corridor outside the command room

Bai Chonghuan's path was blocked by Niu Boyi's huge body; Gouzi only shook his head at him, meaning he wouldn't let him go out to take risks.

The "Iron Body" of the New Human Awakening explained by Heitao A had already increased Bai Chonghuan's strength several times over; at this moment, he even thought that even if he were to fight this Military Dog, he might not necessarily lose, but he had not yet done anything so reckless.

"I must go out to organize the ground interception battle. Once the enemy approaches the Base, they will certainly be bombarded. By then, not only will the people inside the Base be slaughtered, but even Commander Liu Mu will face danger because she cannot receive our support."

Having briefly explained his reasoning, Bai Chonghuan saw that Gouzi looked like it would not listen to persuasion, so he continued with a mix of logic and cajoling, "You heard what Commander Liu Mu said just now, didn't you? It was she who wanted me to conduct operations outside the Base. Such a smart Military Dog as you should understand that if the timing of the battle is delayed, the consequence will be that the entire Haiyang Base, including Commander Liu Mu, will die without a burial place, and might even turn into Zombies."

"Woof woof, is that what the dog's Master meant?" Niu Boyi tilted its head; it did not care at all whether the Base would cease to exist, nor did it believe that its powerful Master would meet with any trouble.

Instead, it thought seriously about Liu Mu having Bai Chonghuan prepare for land combat, and it seemed... that was not wrong either. "Wuru, alright then, the dog will protect you."

Although he did not understand the Military Dog's meaning, seeing it back out of the corridor like a large fuzzy caterpillar and then gaze at him expectantly, Bai Chonghuan tacitly agreed to take it to the battlefield. "Let's go, Dog Brother, we are going to the front line together!"

He had witnessed Niu Boyi's combat ability; at that time, with that one leap, not only did it save someone, but it also knew to use its tail to attack the Zombie, without letting it touch its body.

Moreover, as Bai Chonghuan walked hurriedly, he did not forget to look back at Niu Boyi... Sure enough, this Gouzi had already put on a huge Filter Mask for itself, and on its body there was even... Bulletproof Soft Armor?

Division Commander Bai's pupils vibrated as he watched; a dog, is it equipped this well?

Seeming to perceive his thoughts, the Gouzi, which was using its teeth to tighten the mask's fixing strap, grinned at him.

"You really are very smart," Bai Chonghuan gave a thumbs up, "the smartest wolfhound I have ever seen in my life."

"Woof woof," Niu Boyi was happy, stuck out its tongue, wiped clean the white mist that had appeared on the mask, and left quite a bit of drool.

Regarding its actions, Bai Chonghuan could not comment; after all, he was currently mobilizing the army, preparing to set off.

In fact, this time Bai Chonghuan was not seeking glory, nor did he feel that it would not work without him going, but because the risk of going out to fight was too great, and as the leader of this unit, he had to share the fate of his soldiers.

When the heavy gate under the high wall opened before their eyes, even those wearing protective masks smelled a scorched stench; that was the smell of Zombies after being incinerated by Incendiary Bombs.

The incinerated corpses were piled two meters high, and the tanks were in the lead, directly crushing out a path.

Following the five tanks were groups of Armored Vehicles, and finally, transport Trucks and heavy weapons.

This time, Bai Chonghuan took away an independent regiment and equipped it with heavy artillery. A full five battalions, divided into five routes, rushed to the outskirts of the city, intending to intercept the landing Tiankuishe army and fight them outside the city.

Mighty and majestic, they rushed to the battlefield.

As for Tiankuishe, it was indeed as Liu Mu had expected and foreseen; they were indeed launching an all-out effort this time, mainly for two reasons.

The first is that their expansion in the north had suffered setbacks; Yang Shuo and Qi Zhengxun had actually bypassed the senior management of the General Command and destroyed their "Useless Human Elimination Plan," which was to spread the Zombie Virus on a large scale in several Barriers near the General Command to eliminate the excess human population.

Originally, this plan was very meticulous, and their people had infiltrated the high levels of the Huaguo government more than a decade ago, capable of grasping all intelligence on the General Command's actions. But it was those two people above who, before the Zombie Virus had even fully spread, destroyed several virus cultivation Laboratories they had secretly arranged, causing the plan to die in the cradle.

Qi Zhengxun's death was precisely Tiankuishe's retaliation, but within two hours of the successful assassination of Qi Zhengxun, the spies they had planted in the General Command were all cleaned out.

At that moment, they realized that the one leading everything was not the General Command official Qi Zhengxun, but Yang Shuo, who appeared to be a "newcomer" acting in a supporting role.

Therefore, Tiankuishe had to withdraw from the northern border and pick up their previous plan.

This was also the second reason: the Southeast Three Provinces were actually the best region for the realization of Tiankuishe's "New World Plan," a plan that had been under investigation and evaluation for decades.

This included the fact that the "Ten-Day Burning" in the Southeast Three Provinces was much more severe than in other places; the reason was to clear out the humans here to the greatest extent.

But who would have thought that this land would produce such a freak as Liu Mu, who not only cooperated with Yang Shuo several times to destroy their operations, but also captured three key members of the Black Sequence and Hong, who knew many of the organization's secrets.

And according to reliable information, these people had actually defected. With this, the "New World Plan" was no longer a secret, and the test run of its execution had also failed, so they finally had to change to an alternative region to restart it.

This alternative region was precisely the location of the Huaguo General Command mentioned in "Reason One"—the Central Plains.

Therefore, one and two were almost mutually causal; two failed so they executed one, but one failed as well; it was truly a case of being blocked back and forth.

Now, Tiankuishe had to take advantage of the early arrival of the Extreme Cold and the fact that Yang Shuo was away to restart "two" with lightning speed.

Only this time, they abandoned the Haicheng Barrier where Liu Mu was located and switched to Haiyang, a place that was passively sealed off.

However, Haiyang was not a piece of cake to chew on either.

Bai Chonghuan was worthy of being Yang Shuo's number one fierce general; under his command, the Haiyang Base reacted too quickly.

The Zombie Virus had not even spread for an hour before he took action, actually gathering and protecting the majority of the human population, not to mention the speed of the army's movements.

Of course, as the executor of this plan, Black Lotus, who was directly appointed by "Number One," had never thought from the beginning that Haiyang could be easily taken.

The fleet gathered from various sea areas, and the real war had just begun.